Month: October 2025

Urban bungles: Christopher Kelty

On a green background, a faint wave pattern runs down the right side. On top, in a yellow rectangle: Society Below, the headline: Urban bungles Below, a subhead: What we get wrong about animals in our cities Next, the session date: 26 October Next, a circular windows with a portrait of person, head and shoulders, looking at camera Next to that, the name: Christopher Kelty And below that, a descriptor: Anthropologist, mazerunner Below, at centre, the logotype for The Goa Project Sessions, which has the words ‘The Goa Project’ in white text next to a stylised sunset-and-water image, and next to that, the word ‘Sessions’ within a stylised video camera image. In a black strip at the bottom: Once every four weeks on Sundays, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. IST, on Zoom.

Christopher is professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.  His ethnographic and historical work explores the intersection of science, technology and social/political theory. He is the author of Two Bits (Duke University Press, 2008) and  The Participant (University of Chicago Press, 2019) as well as articles on freedom, responsibility, participation in science and engineering. His current work is The Labyrinth Project,  a multi-disciplinary collaborative research inquiry into  conflict and controversy in urban ecologies in Los Angeles, California, based in fieldwork with pest-control professionals, wildlife managers, biologists, and veterinarians. Also, Satan.

Monkey baat: Anindya Sinha

On an orange background, a faint wave pattern runs down the right side. On top, in a yellow rectangle: Society Below, the headline: Monkey baat Below, a subhead: Non-human primates and the city Next, the session date: 26 October Next, a circular windows with a portrait of person, head and shoulders, looking at camera Next to that, the name: Anindya “Rana” Sinha And below that, a descriptor: Researcher, fellow primate Below, at centre, the logotype for The Goa Project Sessions, which has the words ‘The Goa Project’ in white text next to a stylised sunset-and-water image, and next to that, the word ‘Sessions’ within a stylised video camera image. In a black strip at the bottom: Once every four weeks on Sundays, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. IST, on Zoom.

Anindya had earlier researched the social biology of wasps, classical genetics of human disease, and social cognition in macaques at the Indian Institute of Science and National Centre for Biological Sciences, both in Bangalore. His principal research over the last three decades, conducted mainly at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, also in Bangalore, has encompassed behavioural ecology, cognitive ethology, population and behavioural genetics, evolutionary biology, urban ecologies, and conservation studies, primarily of nonhuman primates. His current studies in natural philosophies, art heritage, and performance studies concern ethnographic explorations of human–nonhuman relations and lived experiences of non/humans, promising unique understandings of more-than-human lifeworlds over history, today, and in the future.